An industrial process is performed in a facility, for instance, a plant by a technical system comprising components such as industrial process equipment for operation, control, regulation and protection of the process. Industrial process equipment is for instance pieces of apparatus such as valves, motors, pumps, conveyors and tanks, instruments and meters, electrical energy conservation apparatuses, power devices, control apparatus, protective devices, industrial loads, such as arc furnaces and rolling mills, and other devices.
The industrial process also comprises an industrial system comprising systems for functionality, control and supervision. This is enabled as an automated system, embodied in a computerized system as a software implementation of the industrial system. Each system is used to define a certain kind of relation between the components. The functional system defines how a function can be divided into subfunctions, which also can be divided into subfunctions, and so on. Each subfunction in the lowest subfunction level is carried out by a component or an element of the component. The control system defines the execution of each subfunction and supervises the component performance. A common control system has intersections with predefined connections such as a hierarchical configuration or cells along a line. The control system is also a tool for the daily work for engineers and maintenance personnel. When planning and implementing a system, at a site, the control system is partly created and populated automatically in the system.
The control functions of the industrial process also comprise a location system. The location system comprises representations of geographical areas and representations of specific devices, which are here called objects. The location system also defines how the components of the process are located within each other. The location system is also used to sort components according to their actual location. Essentially each component of the automated system is represented in both the functional system and the location system.
The industrial process is performed in an existing geographical area in an industrial facility, such as, a plant. Such a facility often comprises different existing geographical areas, such as production areas. These areas are often limited. When planning a production area, drawings for the physical location of each object of the production area are made. These drawings may also be used to implement the location system.
GB 2371884 describes a concept of a location system. However, the location system must be created manually as well as the population of the location system with components. Previously, the method in which to populate the location system has involved looking at Computer Aided Design (CAD) drawings and other paper-based information in order to define the representation of the different components in the correct location. Often the location system has not been used at all due to the amount of work required to configure it.
However, exchanging equipment which was never documented on a drawing, an insufficient CAD layout, maintenance over time or unforeseen installation complexity can cause the implementation of the real physical productions areas to be different from the planned location system.
Populating and repopulating an accurate location system with components quickly and without errors prevents several severe technical challenges.